Thursday Open Thread
Welcome to your Thursday open thread. I hope you’re having a fabulous week so far. What’s on your mind?
House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa canceled a hearing on the FCIC at the last minute because to save face. Documents were going to be presented which contradicted Issa’s alternate history of the crisis. Oopsie!
Peter Kadzick, an attorney for FCIC Chairman Phil Angelides, told TPM that Angelides arrived in D.C. on Sunday night for the Wednesday morning hearing but was told by an Issa staffer on Monday evening that “they had found some documents at the last minute that didn’t fit the narrative.”
The Democrats’ report on the committee’s investigation says that Issa’s accusations about the FCIC were “largely unsubstantiated.”
In addition, Democrats said the information uncovered by congressional investigators raises “a host of new ethical questions about Republican commissioners and staff, including evidence that they leaked confidential information to outside parties on multiple occasions.”
It’s always inconvenient when documents contradict your fake history. I guess the committee is not there to find the truth, it exists to tell the stories that Darrell Issa wants to tell.
I barely remember the story of Kenny Gladney. He was involved in an altercation during an anti-HCR rally in St. Louis and became a poster boy for the right. He got his day in court recently.
It took a St. Louis County jury less than 50 minutes to return a not guilty verdict in the assault trial featuring Kenneth Gladney and two union members who were charged with attacking him outside a town hall event during the tumultuous summer of 2009.
The altercation itself was regrettable and was over almost before it began: the type of heated scuffle that happens countless times everyday in this crowded country, and everyday people move on with their lives.
But because this particular clash was captured on tape, and because Tea Party members went bonkers hyping it, and because right-wing media carnival barkers like Dana Loesch and Andrew Breitbart operate with no moral compass, the Gladney story blew up overnight and became a (demented) cause celebre among hardcore conservatives who hatched a weird fantasy about run-away union violence in America, not withstanding what was captured on the Gladney tape.
It’s difficult to capture just how madly the right-wing media overreacted to this story, doing its best to blow it up into a seismic, Rodney King-type of event. Fox News aired at least 20 segments mentioning Gladney, according to Nexis. Glenn Beck obsessed over the story. Breitbart penned a “I Am Kenneth Gladney” column in solidarity for the Washington Times. And CNN’s Lou Dobbs played dumb on a massive scale while hosting Gladney.
In the end, all the right-wing press had to show for their efforts were not-guilty verdicts stemming from misdemeanor charges.
I’m sure you’re shocked to learn that once again, rightwing agitators made mountains out of molehills. That this even went to trial is pretty amazing in itself.
Tags: Open Thread
Seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Marion Barry’s son faces drug charges.
The Issa story is just another peice of proof that Republicans are using their time in Congress to pile up material for opponents to use in attack ads.
Sadly, the opponents Republicans get to face in elections are mostly Democrats.
MN Gov. Dayton feels the heat, signals he is willing to end the shutdown by accepting a GOP proposal with no new taxes. Not a good omen for the talks in Washington.
Spending cuts liberals can love, that would put Republicans in a tizzy.
Social Security cuts:
Accept some cuts in Social Security benefits. BUT, cancel out the cuts by eliminating the Reagan taxes on Social Security benefits. Make those cuts revenue-neutral by increasing taxes on the upper brackets, thus satisfying the Norquist pledge (theoretically).
Medicare cuts:
– Eliminate Medicare Part D.
– Implement drug price negotiation.
Dayton did make 3 stipulations to accepting the MN rethuglican proposal (from WaPo):
One, that all other Republican policy proposals would be off the table for the rest of the year. GOP leaders had pressed for abortion and stem cell research restrictions, as well as stricter voter ID laws, as part of earlier talks.
Two, for Republicans to drop their demand for an across-the-board 15 percent cut in the number of employees in all state government agencies, which Dayton called “arbitrary.”
Three, that after the budget is finished, Republicans help pass a bonding bill of no less than $500 million. A “bonding bill” authorizes the state to sell bonds and then pay debt on those bonds in order to finance work on publicly owned buildings, property, and land. Dayton pushed for a $1 billion bonding bill earlier this year but got nowhere with the GOP.
Politics 101: Find out what the other side really wants and don’t give it to them unless they give you something first.
Teajadis have to cancel another convention due to serious lack of interest.
My media watch question is when does the media stop giving these guys so much airpspace? They are still fighting over leadership, still fighting over agenda, can’t muster much enthusiasm to show up anywhere and their representatives aren’t serious about governing. There’s a bunch of empty front suits standing in for the people who paid for their campaigns (and no, that wasn’t grassroots) and the media treats them as if they were all Churchill or something.
This being an open thread, I’d like to thank Aoine for her willingness to help a fellow poster, two great successes thus far.
I would like nothing more than to single Aoine out but I have to believe that everyone in the Delaware Liberal community does the same.
He/she is great.
D’oh!
The FBI has opened an investigation into alleged phone hacking of 9/11 victims by NewsCorp.
Seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Marion Barry’s son faces drug charges………
What point were you making other than to demonstrate that you are a well rounded idiot>???
Addiction is a fatal disease and a scourge not a sick gossipy joke, Asshole!
Marion Barry is a joke. I lived in DC during his reign, listened to his bullshit about being faithful to Effie and that he didn’t do drugs. And he set a good example for his son to follow. Christopher Barry gave everyone the same line, that he wasn’t like his father and despised what his father did to his mother. That was utter bullshit.
So blow it out your ass, JSG.
Rupert Murdoch is tired of your bitchin’. He’s done a great job, according to Rupert Murdoch.
Poor Rupert, he’s bleeding…I’ll just tear this strip off my petti-coat.